production lvling??

1. The max is 5 exp/produce. To get more exp, do the highest lvl recipe that you can.

2. The best class for production is Alchemist. As you're just starting, I really recommend that you make an alchemist and do production on him.
It doesn't matter what class you use for farming, you can just send the mats to your alchemist. I think HW, bishop and servant are great for farming mats because of their aoe.

3. It doesn't really matter when you start. But you might want to get to lv280 for craft sense 4, which should help in stuff like smithing etc where you need more success rate to get more exp when you refine (not destroy the gear as fast).

Also check the guides in the production section, as Maxwello said above.

I'd recommend playing Bishop. Super easy to turn your brain off and spam the nemesis button, while letting Divine Bless take care of HP/MP. Only thing is you'd really suck until Nemesis, and kinda suck until Judgment. Most of prod is going to one location and genociding 5000 mobs at a time. It's annoying to do that, while needing;

• the skill catalysts (lots of inv space)
• watching your HP (can heal yourself with skills, or set a cheap HP pot to auto-use, but it's more inv space either way)
• to pick up and carry the mats you're farming (you get the point, MORE INV SPACE, and having to balance using up catalysts with accumulating mat stacks. This isn't hard to do, but it requires your brain to be on. And that is not what you want when spam killing 5000 mobs while watching anime).
• Banking mats. Many mobs have 2+ mats that can give you xp in different prod, and their gear drops can always be refined for xp at some point. You can visit Shiki-Oni once if you can bank everything he drops, or many times when you need only his common (Caesar Shield via a quest reward) for smith xp, only his Salt for 4+ cooking recipes, & only his Battle Surcoats for tailor xp.
• max Cast Time (Cursed Rain ailment is a self-buff that attacks any mob you're attacking. You can AoE Rain the first mob group, but during the cast time of your next Cursed Rain, it tends to ailment-kill the mob, causing the skill/AoE to fizzle. Ask a smarter Alch if this still happens when you're max cast time)

But like, Alchemist is a special class. You shouldn't go straight to Alchemist at 100. Gear up & reap the benefits of any class you want while training prod, & change to Alchemist later. The prod related benefits of being an Alch aren't that great, when you mostly using failsets for xp.

& It's very difficult to make progress in prod without multiple device farming, or being smart with your time (e.g. instead of farming 100stk of Bent Pickaxe, buy 100stks & use the time you saved to do some activity that creates 500m, like farming Oswald uncommon). some people say prods don't make money until 170+, but there are somewhat reliable methods like Jewel Steel, & people will pay any ANY ANY price for Hihiirokane (negates chance of losing ☆Ability level when upgrading or moving ☆Abilities, & best support item for releasing Relics).

idk. think about it.

I will say patience still plays a big role in production. Having fail set and success up set is just a handfull of equipment to help you. Your dedication will also play its part to reach your production goal. This is just my thought.